Marriage in the 1800s
Jim Furdine February 7th 2014
ENC 1101 Ms. Dominique
Marriage Portrayed by Women in the 1800s
Marriage has been portrayed as many things throughout the years. In the short stories, The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell both portray marriage, and how it does not always bring happiness. Each story was written by a married woman in the 1800s, this could reveal and interrupt how the lives of a married woman were in their time period. In each story, the main character is woman being overpowered by her husband, then when they find out they could be ‘free’ a sudden sigh of relief comes to mind. Only to be either be mislead or to feel trapped again. The authors Kate Chopin and Susan Glaspell illustrate how marriage was in the 1800s and how it was not the source of happiness everyone in today’s society thinks of it to be. To start, both stories were written by female authors in the 1800s. Coming from a woman’s point of view in that time era it can be interpreted that a woman’s role in a marriage was not what everyone thought it was. It can be depicted that each woman struggled while trying to find herself, but they eventually did within their writing. Both women were extremely good writers and both achieved success almost instantly after their writing was brought to the public. Kate Chopin who went to Academy of the Sacred Heart (Robinson, n.p.) and Susan Glaspell who went to Drake University and University of Chicago (Ben-Zvi, n.p.) both wrote about experiences in their life and the struggles they were faced with. While similar on how they both strived on writing from their life experiences, both strong feminist writers, and dealing with roles that women play or are forced to paly, and the relationship between men and women in society (Ben-Zvi, n.p.) Yet. They differ as Kate Chopin wrote after her husband was deceased and Susan Glaspell wrote as a career in a way. Chopin wrote as a way to release her
ENC 1101 Ms. Dominique
Marriage Portrayed by Women in the 1800s
Marriage has been portrayed as many things throughout the years. In the short stories, The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell both portray marriage, and how it does not always bring happiness. Each story was written by a married woman in the 1800s, this could reveal and interrupt how the lives of a married woman were in their time period. In each story, the main character is woman being overpowered by her husband, then when they find out they could be ‘free’ a sudden sigh of relief comes to mind. Only to be either be mislead or to feel trapped again. The authors Kate Chopin and Susan Glaspell illustrate how marriage was in the 1800s and how it was not the source of happiness everyone in today’s society thinks of it to be. To start, both stories were written by female authors in the 1800s. Coming from a woman’s point of view in that time era it can be interpreted that a woman’s role in a marriage was not what everyone thought it was. It can be depicted that each woman struggled while trying to find herself, but they eventually did within their writing. Both women were extremely good writers and both achieved success almost instantly after their writing was brought to the public. Kate Chopin who went to Academy of the Sacred Heart (Robinson, n.p.) and Susan Glaspell who went to Drake University and University of Chicago (Ben-Zvi, n.p.) both wrote about experiences in their life and the struggles they were faced with. While similar on how they both strived on writing from their life experiences, both strong feminist writers, and dealing with roles that women play or are forced to paly, and the relationship between men and women in society (Ben-Zvi, n.p.) Yet. They differ as Kate Chopin wrote after her husband was deceased and Susan Glaspell wrote as a career in a way. Chopin wrote as a way to release her
Cited: Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Mays, Kelly J. New York, N.Y: W. W. Norton & Company Inc, 2013. 476-477. Glaspell, Susan. “A Jury of Her Peers.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Mays, Kelly J. New York, N.Y: W. W. Norton & Company Inc, 2013. 490-504. Robinson, Marilyn. Foreward. The Awakening. By Kate Chopin. New York: Bantam. 1989. and Toth, Emily. Unveiling Kate Chopin. Jackson: UP of Mississippi. 1999. Ben-Zvi, Linda. Susan Glaspell: Her life and times. (New York: Oxford University Press), 2005.